Cold All the Way Through, But Warming

The Wedding Breakfast

Will handed me into one of the chairs at the head of the table, sighing with relief that we were the first ones. "Thank God, I don't know if I could have faced Charles already sitting."

"I told you it was worth it to get up." I smiled over at him, nodding my thanks to a footman who was pouring my a glass of orange juice. He had just set it down when I looked up as the door opened to reveal a grinning Charles. "Oh no."

"Finally!" He smiled, turning back to call into the hallway and parlor. "They're here, we can eat!" He was grinning widely as he swaggered in, Rigel quickly slipping by him. I looked past him at the others following in, and the smile on Morgan's face made me get very interested in my eggs. I glanced down as something bumped into my leg, Rigel's tail as he wound his way around my chair.

Mother smiled a little at me, "How are you this morning, Mrs. Murdoch?"

"Very well, Mother." I smiled, nodding to her as she sat at my side. "Thank you for coming."

Charles suddenly coughed very loudly, Sylvie patting his back as if he had swallowed water wrong. Once he had recovered, he turned to me. "You kept her waiting you know, we drank almost all the coffee before I saw you two coming down the stairs."

"I'm surprised you made it down those stairs." Will said, a brow raised as he added even more butter to his toast. "You were in quite a state last night."

"Better than the state of you this morning." Charles grumbled, "And the first thing that happened once I got down was your dog knocking me over, you need to train that thing better." I couldn't help but agree at the moment, for Rigel was very interested in pressing his nose to my crotch and sniffing loudly. I used a foot to push him away, but he quickly came back. Thankfully, the tablecloth hid most of him, although Will was giving Rigel a puzzled look.

"Perhaps Rigel was just excited to see you again." I desperately hoped that no one could hear how loudly Rigel was sniffing me. "You did bring him to me, after all." Charles snorted at that, his mouth full of eggs and mercifully silent for the moment.

That lasted for a few moments longer, as soon as he swallowed he was back at it. "Or perhaps he can just smell my children on me and he wants some playmates. Hopefully you two got a start on that."

Mother actually smiled at that. "I cannot wait to be a grandmother."

"There's nothing wrong with it taking a bit of time, dear." Sylvie leaned towards me. "It just makes the attempts all the more fun." I buried my head in my hands at that, shoving Rigel away from me again. He kept coming back though, until Will grabbed a piece of bacon from his plate and slipped it to him. He was quite happy to leave me alone and snack on it for the moment.

Morgan decided to voice her thoughts. "Oh, it is such fun. I imagine you two had quite the fun time last night. Did they keep anyone here up?"

I thought Will was going to explode at that, but it was Harold who spoke up. "We were all so exhausted from the day that I think we were all well asleep when they came home. And they weren't that late for breakfast, you know."

"Thank you, Mr. Lowe." I nodded to him. "And their rooms are far from ours." I noticed James had pursed his lips, and I remembered the last time he had come up to our floor at night. Breakfast proceeded much more calmly after that, and eventually the others began to trickle out. Mother was still tired and wanted to return home, Abe had to get down to the offices and prepare for his next crossing, and several of the officers wanted to go sightseeing around town. I noticed that James went with them, but I had the strange feeling he'd wind up at the Vanderbilt house and taking Liz out to do something.

In the end, it was just Charles and Sylvie that were left sitting with us in the parlor, taking time to digest everything. Rigel was curled around my feet, his tail thumping happily after receiving yet more bacon during breakfast. Will was looking at a paper when Charles spoke up, "So, what do you think it will be, boy or girl?"